Wandsworth council to charge children £2.50 for using playground
Conservative-lead Wandsworth council have launched a pilot scheme to charge £2.50 to use a Battersea park playground on weekends. The scheme was launched to help fund £55m budget cuts, after research showed that over half of the children who use the playground were from other London boroughs. The playground, which provides a zip-wire and 40ft adventure trail costs the council more than ordinary playgrounds as it is staffed.
Westminster council is to abandon soup run ban plans – for now
Westminster city council have confirmed that they will no longer be going ahead with plans to ban rough sleeping in the borough for the time being, after opposition to the scheme. Figures indicate that just 13 people regularly sleep rough in the area, although soup runs in Victoria attract on average 100 people a night. In a bid to deal with the attention soup runs attract the council have agreed to work with charities and church groups who run the services to find a solution.
Welsh council's £100 fine if food is found in bin
Residents in Wales are facing £100 fines if they misuse their wheelie bins by using them to dispose food waste. The council, which announced the plans in order to meet government recycling targets, told residents that if they throw food waste in wrong bin more than four times they will be fined and their rubbish will not be collected. Residents in England are also fined in some areas if they do not dispose waste correctly. However, the government is expected to scrap local powers to fine residents in England later this year.
